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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3103 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

In the process of this inquiry, the committee wrote to every licensee in the Territory, a large number of industry and community bodies, and each State and Territory government. The chair, myself, also participated in a liquor summit organised by the Government. The summit was very helpful in the process of this inquiry, as it gave the opportunity to discuss issues on an informal basis with all sides of the liquor industry. I am pleased, as chair of the committee, to present to the Assembly a unanimous report on this issue. The responsible use of alcohol is, I believe, one of the greatest challenges faced by our community and communities all over Australia. Alcohol, potentially, is a killer and, as such, demands a high level of responsibility from those who are involved in its sale and its distribution.

I would like to thank the other members of the committee - Mr Wood and Mr Hird, who is not here - for their assistance; and, once again, a special mention to our secretary, Beth Irvin, who put in a great amount of time, sifting through all the submissions. I believe that this report makes a number of sensible recommendations on how the level of responsibility for alcohol consumption and sale can be assured, and I commend it to the Assembly.

MR WOOD (11.49): Mr Speaker, I was pleased to be able to play a part in bringing down this report on a subject that is going to demand more and more attention as time goes by. I think, in the past, governments and the community at large, in particular, though disturbed by the abuse of alcohol, have, nevertheless, paid too little attention to that subject and done too little to try to control or to moderate that abuse.

I might say it is an interesting exercise today - the report has just been tabled, and Mr Osborne, as chair of the committee, has spoken to it - because, before the report was tabled, we had a couple of Government responses to the report. In introducing the Liquor (Amendment) Bill just a short time ago, the Minister indicated that at least two of the recommendations in this report will be taken up. He has announced that there will be a liquor advisory group, not to replace, of course, the Liquor Licensing Board but to advise, in general terms, on matters relating to liquor; and I welcome that. He has also indicated that there will be a code of practice for bouncers; and that was also a recommendation of the committee. Mr Humphries has not gazumped the report. I think these are quite sensible suggestions, and I am pleased that there is action in these directions.

I want to raise one or two matters arising from the report that are of concern to me. Recommendation 9 of the committee says that the Government should "monitor Prohibition Evenings and include guidelines for them in the Standards Manual". I have great reservations about prohibition evenings. I see them as little more than training exercises to convince young, under-age people how great it is to go to nightclubs and consume alcohol. While prohibition evenings, as the name suggests, do not provide alcohol, they do say to young people that it is good to come to licensed premises and have fun. That fun usually means trying to talk in an atmosphere of very loud noise. I will not make a definitive statement today, but I think we should give consideration to prohibiting prohibition evenings. I think they are something that needs further investigations. I think the Government should do that and look to see whether they are at all justified.

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